Tag Archives: relief effort

There’s little LGBT about this. I’m writing it because I haven’t seen anyone else in the media say it. It’s not my recommendation. It’s my observation.

Americans don’t sit by when people are in desperate need. The LGBT community doesn’t just let others suffer. Or so it seems, until now.

The LGBT community locally and nationally is usually very responsive to crises. We got little help with the AIDS crisis but have taken the lead in helping others affected by the disease.

When the earthquake hit Haiti, fundraising events spontaneously popped up all over the U.S. What had Haiti ever done for us? Nothing. They’re the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and needed our help. Most of us gave and felt guilty for not giving more.

The LGBT community in Dallas got together and produced an eight-hour fundraising event with performers from within and from outside our community to raise money for Haitians. Thousands of dollars were sent to the Clinton-Bush Haiti fund. The only wish in the community was that we could have done more.

When the tsunami swept the Pacific, donations poured in to help a dozen or more poor countries recover. Some of those countries were allies. Others, not so much. But desperate people needed our help.

Dallas Voice reported at the time that Cathedral of Hope and White Rock Community Church joined forces and raised more than $20,000 for that relief effort.

Today, floods have displaced 8.5 million people in Pakistan. As the crisis continues, homes have been destroyed and people are consumed by illness and hunger. The reaction is quite different.